Thursday, December 06, 2012

Valubility added

First I thought the student was writing about volubility, but no: the sentence asserted that taking classes in a variety of disciplines increases one's value on the job market, but the word the student used to express this value-added component was valubility, which is either a portmanteau word combining value and ability or else evidence of a gap in the student's vocabulary. Vocabulability. Whatever.

Or maybe it's just me. Let's take a look at the OED: nope, no entry. Dictionary.com: nothing. Google: 49,400 hits, including one promising to translate valubility into Urdu but instead suggesting malleability as an alternative. Not helpful.

However, if college students start using valubility in essays, it's only a matter of time before the word takes its place in popular usage and eases into the dictionary. Look what happened to relatable! A vapid vocable eagerly adopted by students with nothing to say now gets nearly seven million hits on Google! 

The inevitability of valubility makes me want to take up a less futile line of work, but where shall I begin? Fortunately, a student essay offers the answer: the advantage of taking classes outside your discipline, asserts the essay, is that if you fail at your career, you'll always have something to fall back on. So if this whole stamping-out-ignorance gig doesn't work out, I can always fall back on the introductory computer programming class I took in 1981. Basics of Basic! Putting that kind of course on my vita is certain to improve my valubility.         

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